Automotive manufacturers are driven to design light weight vehicles with increased crash performance and reduced fuel consumption. The manufacturers have transitioned from a usage of mild steels for vehicle components to advance high strength steels and ultra-high strength steels along with aluminum. Hot stamping processes for vehicle components allow creation of fully martensitic structures. However, the hot stamping process may create vehicle components with undesirable qualities. For example, vehicle components having uniform microstructures may not have enough strength to sufficiently withstand impact stresses at component geometry transitions without additional reinforcement parts.
This disclosure is directed to solving the above problems and other problems as summarized below.